


The Sole Requirement

by flashofthefuse



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, F/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 06:10:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9165529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flashofthefuse/pseuds/flashofthefuse
Summary: A subverting of the soulmate trope, using MFMM characters set in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek dystopian AU one hundred years in the future.The world has faced dark times and some people fight for individual rights while others cling to old ways. In a time when leaders try to dictate who you can love, the heart still finds a way to what it wants.





	

**Author's Note:**

> It was fun making myself step out of the box for this one, and it's different from my usual work. Thank you to @fire_sign for organizing the collection. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy my contribution.

Prologue

By the year 2120 climate change has wreaked havoc on planet earth. Sea levels rose, earthquakes and massive storms devastated populations, governments collapsed.

Resources are scarce and the gap between classes has widened markedly. What is left of Australia is now ruled by Elder Councils that for the past 80 years have decided the rules by which citizens are to live.

Many of those rules were designed to separate the classes and allow the wealthier citizens to thrive, while the poor and less fortunate withered. A carefully orchestrated survival of the fortunate based solely on circumstance of birth.

As often happens when basic civil rights are denied to some, conflict emerged and the people took a stand. First in protest, with rallies and strikes, and then with riots and violence.

Leaders arose to guide the resistance and quell the violence. One of those leaders was Commander Jack Robinson, who worked covertly from his position within the Compliance and Security Forces. Another unexpected ally for the downtrodden, herself a member of the upper echelon, was the High Honorable Ms. Phryne Fisher.

After a year of skirmishes between resistance and council forces, followed by tense negotiations, a truce was won. Concessions were made on both sides, and things began to improve, but change, as always, was slow.

 

* * *

 

City South Security Station—Melbourne, Australia 2125

She came marching into his office in a roaring temper, leaning forward aggressively on his desk, and staring him down.

“Tell me you did not lock him up,” she seethed.

“A complaint was laid by Virginia’s mate. My hands were tied,” He replied calmly.

“But isn’t this the kind of thing we fought for? It’s an archaic decree that serves absolutely no purpose but to keep people in what the council believes is their rightful place! Daks is a Downunder, Virginia an Uplander, and never the two shall mix!” she cried, waving her arms about dramatically.

“Be thankful it’s no longer a jailable offense. Most people have been ignoring the rule with impunity for years and we’re getting fewer and fewer of these complaints,” Jack said. “I’ll bet in five more years the requirement will be lifted all together.”

“Five years!?”

“Perhaps someone could find a way to hurry it along,” Jack suggested. “He’ll be okay. It’s just a fine, Phryne.”

“Yes, a fine Daks can’t pay, and that is entirely the point! It’s only ever Uplanders that lay complaints against Downunders—to keep them down!”

“I know that, but like I said...”

“Yes, I heard you. Your hands are tied. I’m just surprised you didn’t add the part about being a servant of the council,” she flopped down into the chair, disgusted.

“But, I am, and as such, I don’t get to pick and choose which of their decrees to enforce.”

“More’s the pity, as you have more sense than all of them put together.” She pulled a checkbook from her bag and snatched a pen up off of his desk.

“That won’t be necessary, Ms. Fisher,” he said, gently, reaching across the desk to pull the pen from her hand. “It’s been taken care of.”

She raised a curious eyebrow.

“As a Commander of Compliance I’m bound to enforce decrees. What I do as a private citizen is my own business.”

“How many times can I fall in love with you, Jack Robinson?” she said, beaming at him. “Where is Daks now?”

“I’m guessing he and Virginia are on their way to Canada.”

“Well, hopefully that will be far enough away. I think they’ll be happy.”

“I hope so, but it’s all really just a crap shoot, isn’t it? There’s never any guarantee.”

“No. But, sometimes you get lucky.”

She walked around the desk and settled herself in his lap, looping her arms around his neck.

 

* * *

 

 

Phryne’s Parlour - That evening.

“Do you really think they’re being wise?” Dot said. “The formula for The Requirement was delivered to Elder Braxpaddle through divine inspiration and has served us well. It’s really in the best interest of the children, isn’t it?”

“Whenever leaders want to meddle in the private lives of citizens they always say it’s in the interest of the children,” Phryne scoffed. She loved Dot dearly but the girl hadn’t been raised to think for herself. There were still some of the old beliefs that she clung to a bit too fiercely. “I highly doubt that a supposed algorithm using date and hour of birth, blood type, and some unintelligible nonsense about gene sequencing can determine ones sole-mate. I don’t think it even exists, it’s a construct invented to make us believe our lives are predestined. There is no such thing as a sole-mate!”

“You think the Elders are lying to us?” Dot asked, aghast. “What about you, Commander? What do you think of The Requirement?” Commander Robinson had a way of explaining things that was less emotional than Ms. Phryne.

“Well, considering my designated mate is currently living with another man, and happier with him than I could ever make her, I’m inclined to side with Ms. Fisher on this. I don’t believe there is one person on this earth that you are destined to be mated with for life. Even if there were, no formula could help you find them. Ancient writings speak of a concept called free will. I believe everyone should be allowed to choose the path of their own life, and the people with whom they share it.”

“But if people aren’t predestined for each other, what’s to keep them together? If you just choose your mate, then one day you might decide to choose someone else!”

“Exactly,” Phryne said. “And that’s how it should be. Loving someone, and sharing a life with them, is a commitment, and everyone should have a choice in the matter. It shouldn’t be taken lightly, but it should be undertaken freely, and certainly not because some formula told you to,” she slid a little closer to Jack on the chaise lounge and his arm came around her back. “The heart wants what it wants. The flesh has something to say about it too,” she added, turning her head and leaning so close to Jack that their lips were nearly touching.

Dot blushed. She didn’t mind witnessing a little affection, but the way Ms. Phryne and the commander displayed their naked lust for each other always made her a little uncomfortable. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to it, even after all this time.

And what of Ms. Fisher and Commander Robinson? They seemed well suited to one another. Despite the occasional argument—and argument was putting it mildly, crockery had been known to suffer—they’d been happily together for years.

As the commander had mentioned, his mate was living with another man and Ms. Phryne’s mate had died in the conflicts, leading an attack against the resistance.

For a fee, Phryne could have applied for another sole-mate designation, but had never bothered.

That provision didn’t make sense to Dot. If you had only one designated mate and it was all predestined, why had the elders provided a route to a replacement? They were called sole-mates for a reason. The word itself meant singular. One. It was unfortunate to lose a mate early in life, but if the algorithm was real, how could anyone have a second sole-mate?

People could also pay a fee to have the tests re-run if mates turned out to be incompatible, but that called into question the supposed infallibility of the whole thing.

“But, how do you explain Hugh and me?” Dot said, not yet convinced. “We’ve known since we got our designation at age thirteen that we were meant to be together, and I can’t imagine my life with anyone else.”

“Even a broken clock is right twice a day,” Phryne shrugged. “You and Hugh got lucky. But tell me, has it all been a dreamy walk in the park?”

“Well, of course there’ve been issues, but we worked through them.”

“And were you willing to work through them because someone told you Hugh was your sole-mate, or because you love him?”

“I’ve always thought it was one and the same.”

“Believe me, it isn’t,” Phryne said. She knew that Jack had been fond of, maybe had even loved his mate, Rosie, but Phryne had despised Rene at first glance, and that impression had held.

“Look at it this way, Dot,” she said. “What if your designated mate was someone truly awful. Someone you couldn’t live with. Someone cruel or abusive? Should you be expected to remain with that person simply because some formula said you must? And, don’t you find it odd that sole-mates are nearly always from the same class, not to mention never from the same sex?”

Dot had heard all these arguments. They’d been raging for years, but the elders had their reasons, and they knew better than the masses. Didn’t they? For instance, the same sex stipulation was for the procreation of children.

But, Doctor Mac and Ms. Claire were raising two children who would have otherwise languished in an orphanage, wasn’t that a good thing? And, Dot knew other same sex couples and even single parents raising children of their own. It was all so confusing.

In her years working for Ms. Fisher, Dot had seen things that had caused her rethink many of the beliefs she’d been raised with. Maybe this was another one of those.

“Tell me, Dot. What if one day you were told that Hugh was not your sole-mate? That the tests had been wrong. Would that change anything?” Phryne asked.

“No. It wouldn’t,” she said, after barely a moments thought. She’d still love him the same, she was sure of that.

The Sole Mate Requirement had given her Hugh and for that she was grateful, but the fact that it had worked for them, didn’t mean it worked for everyone.

“I do think everyone has a right to be happy,” Dot said. “And if Daks and Virginia are happy together, then I’m happy for them.”

“So am I Dot,” Phryne said, smiling at the girl and giving Jack’s thigh a squeeze.

 

* * *

 

Phryne’s Boudoir—Later that evening

“Why the hurry?” He teased, pressing his body to her and feeling the slick, wet heat between her thighs. He knew what she wanted, but preferred to prolong the exquisite torture of anticipation.

“You heard me earlier. The flesh has a say, and tonight, mine is rather desperate for yours,” she said, arching against him. He looked into her eyes.

“I love you, Phryne. You know that, don’t you?”

“I do, Jack. You tell me everyday.”

“It’s not enough, those words. They’re not enough. Words can’t describe how you make me feel. The language I need has yet to be invented.”

“I think you’re wrong there,” she said, opening herself to him, taking him in hand and guiding him in. “You can show me without words. I want you inside me, Jack. Now.”

“So demanding,” he mumbled against her neck, pushing in slowly, listening for that short, sharp gasp that always accompanied their joining.

The sound took him back to that first time, when their coupling was considered immoral and illegal, and would have landed them both behind bars. It couldn’t have mattered less. By then the pull toward each other was too great, and if their love was wrong, then nothing in the entire universe was right.

She sighed his name, bringing him back to the present and spurring him on as he moved deep within her. Her arms and legs wrapped around him and they rocked together in a rhythm that was all their own.

So many things might have prevented this life together. Jack could’ve brought a complaint when Rosie left him, forcing her to return to their union, as was a sole-mate’s right.

If Phryne’s mate had lived, he’d never have set her free, even though the union had been miserable for them both. He’d been too cruel an individual.

Instead, under the most unlikely of circumstances, Phryne and Jack had found each other. A grudging trust had developed first, then a growing admiration, friendship, and finally, love. They might have called it fate, but they didn’t believe in fate. What they did believe in was the profound respect and affection they had for each other, the sure knowledge that they were better together than they were apart, and that their relationship was worth fighting for.

This. This moment right now and the whole of their life together defied explanation. No one told them it was meant to be. It was right only because they wanted it to be. Because they worked to make it so. Because they’d chosen each other.

They lie together, wrapped in one another’s arms.

“I’m never letting you go, Jack. I hope you realize that. You’re stuck with me for life.”

“It wouldn’t be much of one without you.”

* * *

Epilogue

Two years later, without fanfare, hidden among other mundane Council business, the Sole Mate Requirement was revoked. There was no argument against its demise and some claimed the swiftness with which it happened, in a system known for dragging its feet, had to do with a sudden rash of official complaints filed against High Council members for violation of the rule.

Those complaints somehow managed to become public knowledge. Printed news and TV picked up the stories, exposing the accused. Many of those in violation were the same individuals that had openly praised the rule, arguing for its necessity. They were now exposed as hypocrites, and subjected to public scorn. It was speculated that they used their influence to quietly force a change.

Testing and sole-mate designation at the age of thirteen was no longer compulsory, but private companies sprang up to offer the service for those who wanted it. There were still some that did, due to long held belief in the system, or just out of curiosity, but the cost was prohibitive and, before long, demand died and those businesses were shuttered.

By the time Jack and Phryne’s children came of age, the Sole Mate Requirement was remembered as a quaint remnant of an unenlightened past.


End file.
